re: Official Alabama assistant coaching search thread: staff complete Edition

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Kevin Peoples is in his second season as the defensive line coach for the Green Wave in 2017.

In his first season at Tulane, Peoples coached a defensive line anchored by Tanzel Smart, who earned first-team postseason honors from the American Athletic Conference and Louisiana Sports Writers Association. Smart went on to participate in the Reese’s Senior Bowl and NFL Scouting Combine prior to being a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Prior to joining Tulane, Peoples spent time on head coach Willie Fritz’s staff at Georgia Southern. In two seasons, Peoples’ helped the Eagles to 18 victories, a win in the GoDaddy.com Bowl and a Sun Belt Conference title.

In Peoples’ final season at Georgia Southern in 2015, the defensive line ranked first in the league and 24th nationally in rushing defense (130.9 avg) and second and 24th nationally in total defense (338.1). A pair of players earned all-league accolades, including Jay Ellison and Bernard Dawson, who were each a second-team all-conference pick and led the team to nine wins and a decisive 58-27 victory over Bowling Green in the GoDaddy.com Bowl, the school’s first-ever bowl appearance.

In 2014 the Eagles won the Sun Belt Championship in the team’s first season with Jay Ellison earning All-Sun Belt Conference Honorable Mention honors.

Prior to joining the Eagles, Peoples worked the 2013 campaign at UAB, working with the Blazer defensive linemen.

Under Peoples’ direction, the 2012 Arkansas defensive line earned a top-25 national ranking in sacks and the Razorbacks boasted a rushing defense that finished in the top 20. The Razorbacks posted consecutive 10-win seasons for just the third time in school history and made back-to-back BCS bowl appearances in 2010 (Sugar Bowl) and 2011 (Cotton Bowl). The 2011 squad capped its 11-2 season with a No. 5 national ranking following a 29-16 victory over Kansas State.

Peoples was part of the defensive staff at Arkansas State in 2002 that vaulted the Red Wolves 41 spots in the national rankings in total defense from 80th to 39th, one of only a handful of teams to make such a dramatic improvement. The Red Wolves’ coaches built off that success, entrenching Arkansas State as one of the top two teams in in the Sun Belt in total defense for the next five years. Arkansas State won its first Sun Belt title in 2005 and appeared in the New Orleans Bowl.

In his eight years at Arkansas State, Peoples coached 11 all-Sun Belt Conference selections and mentored several student-athletes who earned All-Sun Belt Conference awards, including Corey Williams (2002, 2003), Jon Bradley (2002, 2003) Myron Anderson (2005), Jonathan Najm (2006), Jammarrow James (2006), Alex Carrington (2008, 2009) and Bryan Hall (2009).

Carrington, the league’s Defensive Player of the year in 2008, was drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills while both Williams and Bradley spent multiple seasons in the NFL. Hall was a member of the Baltimore Ravens when they won Super Bowl XLVII.

Team accomplishments and student-athlete accolades at Arkansas State were products of Peoples’ coaching, effort and caring. In 2003, he was selected from 500 coaches as one of the recipients of the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award, recognizing those coaches who made a significant contribution to their teams.

Peoples’ experiences at different programs and levels have exposed him to a number of philosophies that have helped mold his evolving approach to defensive line play. He first joined Fritz’s staff at Blinn Community College, helping the Buccanneers to the national junior college championship in 1995. The following year, he coached the defensive ends and worked with the kickoff coverage team at Northwestern State.

Reuniting with Fritz at Central Missouri for the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Peoples served as defensive line coach, tutoring first-team All-MIAA and All-Midwest Region defensive lineman Kenneth Bouie. The Mules’ record holder with 23 tackles for loss in a single season in 1998, Bouie still appears in the UCM top 10 list for most tackles in a game and season as well as career tackles for loss. He earned All-America honors as a member of the Blinn championship team before continuing his collegiate career with UCM.

Peoples left for Northern Arizona in 1999 to coach the defensive line and special teams for the Lumberjacks and moved to the professional ranks with the XFL’s Las Vegas Outlaws for the 2000 season. In 2001, he accepted a position coaching defensive tackles back at Northwestern State for then-Demons and current Georgia Southern defensive coordinator Jack Curtis. When Steve Roberts took the reins of the Arkansas State program, Peoples became the Red Wolves’ defensive line coach in January 2002.

A four-year starter at linebacker in college, Peoples launched his coaching career at his alma mater, Carroll College (Mont.) in 1993, spending two years under the tutelage of legendary coach Bob Petrino, Sr. A two-time all-conference pick and all-district selection as a senior, Peoples helped lead the Saints to the 1989 Frontier Conference crown and a berth in the NAIA playoffs.

Peoples is married to is married to wife Rebecca.

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